Violet Coll

COLL, Violet Louise (nee Schmitke)
April 20, 1926 – January 25, 2016

Violet passed away peacefully at Madison Care Center with family by her side. Vi was predeceased in 2007 by Raymond Coll (Ray), her husband of 57 years. She was born in Forestburg, Alberta to Eva (Huether) and John Schmitke into a large family. Vi was the 9th of 12 children born to Eva. Mom enjoyed the farm life and some of her favourite memories were playing with the new lambs and getting into mischief with her younger sister, Verna. She was predeceased by her brothers Ray, Paul, Bill and Marvin, and by her sisters, Ella, Helen, Olga, Ruth and Pearl. Mom is survived by two of her sisters, Pat and Verna, and two of her sisters-in-law, Mernel and Eleanor.

Vi’s daughters Wendy (Rick), Heather (John), Kathryn, and Elizabeth will forever remember their mom for her kindness, generosity and gentle spirit, as well as for her love of baking. Mom’s strawberry flan pie was a favourite birthday request. Her seven grandchildren, Jennifer (Gareth), Gordon, Cole, Daniel, Jeremy, Jessica (Ricky), and Nigel, loved “squeaky” grandma’s quirky sense of humor and in Vi’s words, her two great grandsons, Brendan and Liam, were “lovely”.

For almost six years, mom was lovingly cared for by the staff at the Madison Care Center. The family would like to thank all of the staff for continuing to make mom’s life rich, while she battled the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Previous to living at the Madison, mom enjoyed three years at Amica where she enjoyed spending time and going for walks with her little angel, Nugget; her beautiful and loving Schnoodle (Schnauzer/Poodle cross).

Mom won many awards as a sharp shooter (revolver) and a dart player; she enjoyed curling, card games and golf with her many friends. Mom was always helping others and successfully played matchmaker throughout her life.
In lieu of flowers, the family would like to ask friends and family to honour Violet’s memory by completing random acts of kindness. Please consider doing a good deed for someone in mom’s memory, with no expectation of reward other than knowing you have made a difference in someone’s life. Whether it’s helping someone cross the street, calling your butcher to let them know you appreciated the quality of their product, reaching out to someone you haven’t seen in a long time, or maybe even setting up a couple of friends on a blind date.

We ask that when you perform your random act of kindness to please consider posting about it on Violet’s Memory page, so our family can read all the wonderful things done in Vi's memory.